A64 3000+ vs. P4 3.0C plus recommendations

[pkypkypky]

A64 3000+ vs. P4 3.0C? --- I'm leaning towards the A64 right now. Prices are very close.

A64 3000+ vs. (+$60) for 1mb L2 cache of 3200+

A64 mobos recommendations? Can't find any good review roundups. The price range is high now. What are the important distinctions between the K8T800 chipset boards? ex: Which onboard lan/sound is best? What extra features are can't be missed?!


BTW, I'm not an o/c'er. Don't even need raid.

 

[cowdog]

There are some A64 motherboard reviews here at AT, but the most inclusive comparative review I have seen is here.

AT reviews (that I could quickly find):

A64 motherboards - First Look

Abit KV8 Max

ECS 755-A2

AOpen AK86-L

The Asus K8V has a good reputation as a solid board.

 

[myocardia]

Well, it's gonna depend completely on what your planned uses are for this processor are. For gaming, the Athlon64's are the preferred processor. For multimedia encoding or heavy multitasking, the nod goes to the 3.0C. And the 512k of extra cache makes hardly any difference between the two Athlon64's, except in media encoding. And as long as you aren't going to be overclocking, it really doesn't matter which motherboard you buy. Just pick the one with the options you are looking for at the best price.

 

[SickBeast]

The 3000+ is the best value among the A64 chips right now, and it is definately a better choice than the 3.0C P4. That said, I still find both of those chips overpriced at the moment. A64 still hasn't hit mainstream in my opinion. Traditionally you can get an excellent near top-of-line AMD chip for under $100.

From what I've read, the VIA K800 chipset is better than the Nforce. That said, I still don't trust VIA chipsets. If it were me I would wait until the new revision of the Nforce3 comes out...should be quite soon. Also keep in mind the fact that the new and more future-proof socket 939 is coming out very soon. It should have PCI express and the like. I hope this helps.

 

[charloscarlies]

The 3000+ is the best value among the A64 chips right now, and it is definately a better choice than the 3.0C P4.

sigh...how is it "definitely" a better choice? somebody above was right on though. for gaming amd 64...for encoding intel. either way you won't be disappointed.

 

[pkypkypky]

media encoding? like video editing? I hear about it, but is it really worth the thought unless you edit media a lot? Maybe I'm mistaken with my understanding.

Not too much gaming for this setup, more business apps....and graphics stuff....which is probably the same as gaming? not sure...adobe illustrator and such

 

[Vette73]

I had a P4 running at 3.12 Ghz and went to a Athlon64 3000+ and love ti way better.
The board I got was a Albatron K8X800 ProII , it has hardware sound, true SATA, firewire, etc.... and only cost $117 shipped at newegg.com

 

[pkypkypky]

what do you think of this setup then?


antec case w/350w (should be enough juice, right? for 1 hdd)
albatron K8X800 ProII
A64 3200+
1GB mushkin 3200

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
what do you think of this setup then?


antec case w/350w (should be enough juice, right? for 1 hdd)
albatron K8X800 ProII
A64 3200+
1GB mushkin 3200

Yes, the SL350 psu that comes with some of the Antec cases is plenty of power, if you aren't going to be overclocking. That looks like an excellent setup to me, especially since the A64 3200 has 1MB of L2 cache, and does much better in media encoding than the A64 3000 does. That way, you wouldn't be sorry you had bought it, if you do get into ripping/encoding dvd's, etc.

 

[Shimmishim]

everyone over looks the shuttle AN50R



It's a GREAT board...
all the harcore overclockers use it...

it lacks in the vdimm and vcore voltage department but that can be fixed EASILY with some simple soldering

 

[Jhatfie]

Yep, I love my shuttle An50R. It combined with my A64 3000+ are good for 2450mhz (245x10) @ 1.68v with no mods. A sizeable upgrade from my XP 2100+ @ 2367mhz. I'd say get the A64 for sure, but I am a little biased now. I have no experience with any other A64 motherboards, but if you plan to overclock, give the Shuttle a look or hold off a couple weeks for the new nForce3 250 boards to start showing up. If you only plan on a mild OC, the albatron K8X800 ProII should be fine. It has good sound and some decent features at a good pricepoint.

 

[Markfw]

I am biased also. I like whats in my sig

 

[McArra]

Another biased here. My vote goes to Chaintech ZNF3-150. Still haven't overclocked as I seem to have some problems of stability with my twinmos. I have to run memtest. Chaintech has the same audio K8X800 ProII has. It also has Cbox3 (which I love), is better for overclocking and radex is a nice feature.

 

[Diogenes2]

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
A64 3000+ vs. P4 3.0C? --- I'm leaning towards the A64 right now. Prices are very close.

A64 3000+ vs. (+$60) for 1mb L2 cache of 3200+

A64 mobos recommendations? Can't find any good review roundups. The price range is high now. What are the important distinctions between the K8T800 chipset boards? ex: Which onboard lan/sound is best? What extra features are can't be missed?!


BTW, I'm not an o/c'er. Don't even need raid.

The higher priced boards tend to add Firewire and higher end sound.. Even most of the the sub $100 boards have GB Lan and SATA RAID, but you can use the SATA channels for non RAID operation...

If you go over to Newegg and search on " Socket 754 ", you will get a nice list of Mobo's starting at about $87 ..



I enjoyed this Roundup...

The Athlon 64 Motherboard Shootout


I'm putting together a new system with the Albatron board and a 3200 ...

The Albatron board has GB Lan, 8 Channel Sound, has had some pretty good reviews and is going for about $120.. You could pay a lot more and get a lot less in some cases..



I hope to get things cranked up this weekend, and I'll get back with an assessment..

 

[cowdog]

The hardwarezone round up is a nice read. They put a lot of effort into that review. Cool. Thanks for the link. I look forward to Part Two of these A64 motherboard reviews with NF3-250 and the new Via chipset.

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
media encoding? like video editing? I hear about it, but is it really worth the thought unless you edit media a lot? Maybe I'm mistaken with my understanding.

Not too much gaming for this setup, more business apps....and graphics stuff....which is probably the same as gaming? not sure...adobe illustrator and such

Business apps and graphics stuff is not the same as gaming. For MS office apps you will likely see no difference but if you use Photoshop for your graphics work the the P4 would be a better choice.

 

[Tom]

yea, any apps that use hyperthreading, like many of Adobe's products, would be considerabally faster on the P4.

And the speed diff in games is overrated, IMHO. I mean what game is there that actually plays better on an A64 ?

 

[BG]

I am very disappointed with my P4/2600+ HT.
Expected it to rule my XP2500+ but multitasking isn't better than the XP. Don't understand all this so called test results.
I do mostly music conversion in CDex, office stuff, some gaming and a lot of downloading. Thought I could see a difference with this Hyperthreading stuff. Well to be honest I cannot see a difference. Everybody here in the house is working here on these machines and they don't notice differences if I ask.
My next CPU will be a 939pin A64 when it's out. Wonder how this will perform.